Ok so you don't agree, with what? Any feedback is appreciated.
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LankymartMay 24 '14 at 12:19

4

Some users see questions like this as a chance to educate people about better options. Give a man a fish and all that. Personally, I would first ask the OP if they really meant classic ASP or ASP.NET, since a newbie wouldn't know there was a difference and may have meant the latter.
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Oded♦May 24 '14 at 12:24

You've crossed the line with this edit. You've removed from the answer a note that the answer's author had added: "but, as the man said, you really shouldn't be using classic ASP these days." Editing an answer to improve formatting, remove typos, improve grammar, that's fine. Removing an opinion from the answer's author that you don't agree with is not right. Not only that, but you did it twice.
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LouisMay 24 '14 at 12:32

1

@Louis It's flat out wrong and adds little to nothing to the answer (if you can call it that). I stated my reasons it wasn't like I did it covertly?
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LankymartMay 24 '14 at 12:35

7

@Lankymart Your option is to downvote and comment, not to edit the answer into something that is not objectionable to you. You could write a whole doctoral dissertation about how the answerer is wrong, and it would still not be right to edit another person's answer to make it fit your opinion.
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LouisMay 24 '14 at 12:38

It is an incredibly poor question. How do you know that the OP didn't just check out a 15 year old book from his local library and thus would be greatly helped by that comment? Looks to me the problem is entirely yours, you want to read comments like that as negative. Hoping for some kind of social leverage that entitles you to post crap like that and not get commented on. That is a really sucky attitude.
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Hans PassantMay 24 '14 at 16:53

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@HansPassant Your right, people have pointed out where I went wrong and appreciate your comments to. Sometimes it takes different perspectives to change someone's view of a situation and that is entirely true in this case. Which is the whole reason I posted on meta, without this outlet I probably would have just got more worked up without good reason.
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LankymartMay 24 '14 at 17:10

@Lankymart: It is an opinion, how can it be wrong?
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PlasmaHHMay 26 '14 at 14:37

2 Answers
2

I sort of know what you mean. I answer a lot of WinForms questions, and I naturally see a lot of snarky comments telling people that WinForms is "obsolete", "old", "useless" technology and that they should switch to WPF. More often than not, these comments are filled with misinformation and a significant amount of hand-waving. We are technical people, our job is to understand and solve technical problems. Just because something newer and flashier comes along doesn't necessarily mean it's better and everything else is old and useless. And it certainly doesn't mean that we can throw up our hands and give up solving the problems that we're presented with, no matter what language/technology they are in.

To be fair, these comments do contain some degree of truth. If you were truly starting over, either on a new project and/or learning a new technology, it would be probably be foolish to start in WinForms, Classic ASP, or a whole host of other such things.

But that is precisely the problem. When these comments bother me is when they're posted on advanced questions from users who clearly know the limits of the technology they're using, but are forced to use it anyway, and are looking for another advanced user to help them work around those limits. In that case, they're just frustrating noise and they should be deleted. I often flag them. I have a suspicion that most of my comment flags are declined, but I don't check back to see.

That said, I think the case in question here is a special one. The one instance where these comments are useful is when you're clearly dealing with someone who is new to the technology. It is very easy to tell from the questions someone is asking that they are a complete novice: they are clueless when it comes to the most simple and fundamental tasks. In the question you linked, he even tells you such explicitly. Those are precisely the people who need to be told "No, don't waste your time learning x. Use y instead, it is better for the following reason(s)."

Mind you, it is still not an answer to their question, but it is perfectly appropriate—even helpful—as a comment. It is just like the people who ask basic C++ questions but are clearly trying to learn from an obsolete book, or one written on C programming. Similar comments are necessary in that case for the newbies. They may honestly not know any better. Or if they do, and are just trying to slog their way through anyway, hoping no one will notice, then you should do them a favor and notice.

Sure, experienced users do sometimes get snarkier than they should. I feel like I can speak authoritatively about this, because I do lots of it myself. If we cross a line, we are sorry and we admit that we were wrong. But please, do cut us some slack—the volume of poor quality questions that we see flood into Stack Overflow on a daily basis, the vast numbers of pathologically helpless askers, and the sheer drudgery of continual moderation tasks really take a toll on our patience. Not to mention other things that may be going on in our lives.

As for the real question being asked here, of what you should have done differently. The best thing to do is not to get into a big fight. If someone has left a comment that is worded differently than you would have worded it, but still helpful, let it alone. If you disagree with that comment, for whatever reason, post your own well-reasoned dissent. But don't get into an argument with the original poster. That serves absolutely no purpose. It just flares tempers, bruises egos, and makes the problem worse. And although it goes without saying, bad questions should be closed. That has little to do with comments.

I'd like to use your "WinForms is obsolete" example as an opportunity to point out that, in this specific instance, Mono does not have WPF. It also used not to have WinForms, but changed its mind later on. But if you want to be portable, it's still WinForms or GTK#, not WPF. Starting a new project in WinForms might not be so foolish.
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Frédéric HamidiMay 24 '14 at 14:56

Really appreciate the time you put into this answer it's well thought out and has given me a lot to think about. +1
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LankymartMay 24 '14 at 14:56

It's not clear-cut, "comments" by definition will always tend towards opinionated responses - it's unavoidable, but the powers that be have determined that the feature's pros outweigh the cons...

Perhaps the reason is so obvious it's unnecessary to say more? I'm not an ASP / .NET developer and a quick search results in articles on how to run "classic" apps. on the latest IIS server. Rightly or wrongly while Microsoft continues to support it, people will continue to use it - so arguably the comment isn't useful without some kind of citation / link elaborating on why.

To answer your question though, "Should I have approach this differently?" - most likely. The only thing that is certain is that accusing someone of trolling is alsotrolling... If you really feel a comment isn't constructive, flag it and leave it (or ask for more details). Don't get hung up on it.